Perch nets

[fishhawk2700]

Fishhawk, do you mean to tell me, steelhead is being commercially fished in Lake Erie, then sold to market, and there is virtually zero natural reproduction? Canada is doing this and they do not contribute to the steelhead stocks? I'm going to research before I get emotional but I hope I'm wrong.
Rickerd

Steelhead are not a targeted species but when you fish with gill net you get "incidental" catch of non target species. This catch shows up in U.S. fish counters as "Canadian Steelhead/Rainbow Trout". It's not a regular happening but I do see it here in Mi. stores. Michigan plants about 60,000 in the Huron River and we get a fairly good return. I know Ohio plants a lot, not sure about Pennsylvania or N.Y. Canada has in the past, but I don't think they are now. As far as possibly doing something about it....forget it. Any ***** you would have has to go through the U.S. State Department, and they won't even listen to it.

The thing I don't understand is that there is way more money for local merchants and the Canadian Gov. in sport fishing than there will ever be in commercial fishing. Once again, follow the money.

[randy]

Commercial perch and walleye fishing on the U.S. side is not an issue. The amount of fish they take is very small compared to populations, and it is closely monitored. On the Canadian side, not so much. I'm not going to go into all the reasons because I just get pissed. There is not much info on how the Canadians run their commercial operations but there is some info out there. Do your own research and post your own conclusions.

i recently spoke to a man from sandusky fish co. about perch catches. he said perch catch is down this year. tyey are only averaging 3000 a day.... and they are going to ad 20 more nets bringing their total to 80 from huron to freeport. i thought perhaps they should reduce the number of nets to let the perch rebound though i did not suggest that to him.maybe the odnr will take swift action ... ha ha.